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Opening Arguments

Splatt!

I really hope he's wrong, but history says he's right: "Get ready for higher taxes and no spending reform."

The Obama tax hikes would both be too much and too little--too much not to dampen already weak economic growth, too little to stop the rapid accumulation of debt.

Meanwhile, National Journal reports that "Senate Democratic leaders . . . rejected putting any entitlement reforms forward ahead of Friday's meeting" with congressional leaders at the White House. "In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid talked only about what he won't accept during negotiations--namely, any changes to Social Security."

The American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis reports that Obama's budget also calls for some $577 billion in spending cuts. "That's $3 of tax hikes for every $1 of spending cuts. Even if you include interest savings, 60% of the debt reduction comes from tax hikes." And what happens when interest rates go up?And what happens when interest rates go up? That's the real fiscal cliff, one toward which Obama and Democrats apparently intend, as his campaign slogan had it, to keep moving "Forward."

Can we come up with something other than "fiscal cliff," by the way? Lately, I've been hearing people say things like, "Well, maybe they'll go over the cliff for a day or two, but that will panic them into doing the right thing." Maybe I'm just being picky, but once you go over a cliff, THERE'S NO TURNING BACK, OK!?!? You're gonna hit the ground and go Splatt!

Comments

tim zank
Fri, 11/16/2012 - 1:18pm

Give Obarky everything he wants and let him and the Democrats own it....it's gonna crash anyway, better they hold the bomb when it goes off...

Only one way to prove Presidents liberal spending policies aren't sustainable, let them crash....(of course they could just look at Europe and surmise the same thing but I guess that'd be too easy)

 

littlejohn
Fri, 11/16/2012 - 7:19pm

Honest to god, Tim, is giving people funny names the best you can do?

john b kalb
Sat, 11/17/2012 - 1:09pm

Small Place To .......:  One word out of 57 and you post garbage to Tim?  WE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND YOU!

Harl Delos
Sun, 11/18/2012 - 1:38am

"Only one way to prove Presidents liberal spending policies aren't sustainable, let them crash"

You need to see an opthalmologist, Tim.  You obviously need a new prescription for your glasses.

It's not the president's spending policies.  It's congress that passes the laws, and the administration only executes them.

And it's not the policies that would crash, it's the economy.

For some obscure reason I've never really understood, American taxpayers are supposed to pay for the defense of South Korea.  Article IV Section 4 says the feds have to do that for every state, but when was South Korea granted statehood? 

The US military is supposedly deployed in more than 150 countries. Since we haven't been at war in 2/3 of a century, that seems a little, well, stupid. There are Marines attached to each of our embassies, but as a US embassy in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick would be considered to be on US soil, rather than Fenwickian soil,  I don't think that counts.

The assertion that big government is wasteful and unresponsive ignores the fact that big corporations are wasteful and unresponsive, too.  Talking about the percentage that the government represents in the economy is silly.  Do you really care that you pay I&M Electric rather than City Light for power?  Has there really been any difference in buying liquor stores in ohio since the state stopped running the state stores?  Has transportation improved since Indiana disposed of the Tollway?

The way to prove that governmental spending policies are unsustainable is to pay the bill instead of continuing to run a tab.  For a long time, the GOP campaigned on the notion of a balanced budget.  It's only been since the GOP started claiming in the Reagan years that deficits don't matter that the national debt started getting out of control.

And I'm not for a "balanced budget amendment".  When a business needs additional warehouses or factories, they usually take out a mortgae instead of paying cash.  Most families finance cars and homes by borrowing instea of paying cash.  There's no need for government to pay cash up front for an asset that will be used for decades.  But when the GOP stopped insisting that government pay their bills, Congress has been paying for their groceries with a credit card, and letting the balance roll over. month after month after month.

The real answer here is we need to pay our bills, instead of acting like deadbeats.  We were in worse financial shape after WWII, but Eisenhower promoted tax reform with the IRS Code of 1954, and before the decade was over, we were in reasonably good shape.  A basic tenet of conservative thought is to use tried and proven solutions, rather than hare-brained schemes.  If only  the people that called themselves conservatives would start acting like conservatives, we'd be in solid shape in no time.

littlejohn
Sun, 11/18/2012 - 10:41am

Yet, you, Mr. Kalb, are so easy to understand. It must be the ALL CAPS, which, as we all know, is the sign of Internet intelligence.

john b kalb
Sun, 11/18/2012 - 3:52pm

Small Place to.....:  Or , maybe it's because there are so darn many keys close to the "Caps Lock" key  - and some of us have oversize fingers!

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